The coffee berry borer (hereafter called CBB) is a small beetle native to Africa that has spread throughout much of the coffee producing areas of the world. It is recognized as the most harmful pest to coffee crops worldwide.
The small female CBB lays multiple eggs inside the coffee berry, which hatch into larvae that feed upon the coffee seeds (seeds that later will develop into the beans) inside the berry. After pupating, the adult CBB emerge inside the berry where mating occurs. Only the female CBB has functional wings; thus it is the mated female that emerges from the berry to search for new coffee berries as oviposition sites to perpetuate the species.
The presence of this pest negatively affects the economy of over 20 million families that depend on coffee production in over seventy countries, including coffee producing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, causing significant damage as high as 50% yield losses. Infested coffee beans reduce the price to growers, as well as reduce the size of the crop yield at harvest. In severe infestations the CBB can economically damage the entire harvest of an area.
There are a few natural enemies of the CBB, such as the parasitic wasp (Phymastichus coffea). Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the wasp in controlling the CBB is not yet fully known.
As this point, the main measures for controlling the CBB are only preventative applications of persistent insecticides. The implementation of efficient control programs is difficult, since the coffee plant is perennial, with several flowering periods, and generally grows in areas of hilly terrain with very unpredictable weather. Furthermore, the chemical control of this pest is difficult as the borer spends most of its life cycle deep inside the coffee berry.
The prior art shows the use of endosulfan 35 EC, an old organo-chlorine based chemical insecticide, to control the female beetles after they emerge from the coffee berries 1) that are not harvested or 2) that do not abscise from the tree or 3) those that fall to the ground at the base of the tree but before they oviposit in new berries. In addition, Cypermethrin and Deltamethrin, pyrethoids at 26 ml/15 L of water are also used by the prior art to control CBB.
Unfortunately, emerging resistance of the CBB to these products is beginning to reduce the chemicals' effectiveness over the pest. In addition, there have been many cases of accidental human poisoning. Furthermore, the use of the endosulfan insecticide raises additional concern regarding environmental contamination and residues of the chemical from repeated applications.
The prior art uses commercial traps+alcohol based attractants, such as the BROCAP™ (FIG. 3), the Fiesta Trap (FIG. 4), or homemade versions made from plastic 1.5 liter soda bottles, in mass trapping programs as alternatives to control CBB populations. Unfortunately, these traps are expensive, difficult to maintain, and/or service. Basically, it is necessary to service the traps on a weekly basis to remove captured insects and to refresh the soapy water that captures the insects.
The second major pest in the coffee plantations of Central and South America is the coffee-leaf miner, Perileucoptera coffeella Guérin-Méneville (Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae). This pest is endemic in the West Indies and in Madagascar.
This pest is economically significant to the coffee producers because the larvae spend their lives burrowing in the palisade layer of coffee leaves, which can lead to considerable destruction of assimilatory surface areas. The resulting leaf fall causes large reductions in field yields, particularly if it occurs a few weeks before the berries are harvested. The leaf damage can also result in the weakening of fruiting branches or even of the whole tree, and recovery does not take place until the following season.
Leaf miners are difficult to control because they live burrowed into the leaves in round individual tunnels. Pupation takes place in cocoons on the undersides of the leaves. Because of their life habits, chemical control of leaf-miners requires repeated applications of insecticides with systemic activity. The sex pheromone of the coffee leaf miner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,223 as a mixture of 5,9-dimethylpentadecane and 5,9-dimethylhexadecane.
In view of the above, there is a need for a method and apparatus that kills pests affecting the coffee plants but do not suffer the disadvantages of the prior art of insecticides and traps described above; a system that can lower the chemical residues on the plant, and is economical and environmentally friendly.